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Home , Atlanta Beat (WPS), Atlanta Beat (WUSA), Boston Breakers, Boston Breakers (WUSA), Brandi Chastain, Carolina Courage

The CyberRays Slate AT&T Park, San Francisco, Aug. 25, 2001 and Aug. 25, 2011

From one champ to another

San Francisco Giants Cody Ross presents former Bay Area CyberRays goalkeeper LaKeysia Beene with a souvenir jersey. STORY INSIDE Maddie Payne photo From one champ to another

Maddie Payne photo Eleven players from the 2001 Bay Area CyberRays gathered at AT&T Park to be honored on the 10th anniversary of their Women’s United Soccer Association championship. ______Lined up across the grass "Somewhere behind the Ross – most valuable behind home plate at athlete you've become and player of last year’s AT&T Park, surrounded the hours of practice and the National League by excited children, the championship series – coaches who have pushed women who played presented each of the you is a little girl who fell in professional soccer 10 CyberRays players a years ago for the Bay love with the game and never Giants jersey. One Area CyberRays didn’t looked back ... play for her." champion to another. look like threats to the Soccer player established order. ______Winning the WUSA title exactly 10 years before, was difficult enough, I But threats they were winning the first suppose. As the public and are. Subversives, championship of their relations director for the hiding in plain sight. own league, the Women’s team but neither a United Soccer Association woman nor a soccer The , (WUSA), on Aug. 25, player, the most I can reigning World Series 2001. say is that winning a champions, honored championship is difficult them Thursday night for As they were introduced, by definition. what they had done Giants outfielder Cody – Continued overleaf

From one champ to another – Continued from previous The team opened its season with a 1-0 loss at Washington That championship season, 2001 in the league’s inaugural game Record: 13-6-4 37 points (1 point for each Tie, 3 for a Win) and six games later, with just one victory, was still buried seven 14 April L 1, CyberRays 0 0 points 8th place teams deep in the eight-team 29 April T CyberRays 1, Breakers 1 1 point 7th place WUSA standings. 6 May L Charge 3, CyberRays 2 13 May W CyberRays 2, 1 4 points 16 May L 4, CyberRays 2 In the next six games, however, 27 May L Beat 1, CyberRays 0 goalkeeper LaKeysia Beene, a 2 June W CyberRays 1, 0 7 points 6th place 10 June T CyberRays 0, 0 8 points two-time All-American at Notre 17 June W CyberRays 2, Carolina Courage 0 11 points Dame, didn’t allow a single goal, 20 June W CyberRays 3, 0 14 points 5th place a string of consecutive shutouts 24 June T CyberRays 0, San Diego Spirit 0 15 points 4th place 8 July W CyberRays 1, New York Power 0 18 points 3rd place that would never be equaled in 12 July W CyberRays 3, Washington Freedom 2 21 points the WUSA’s three-season history. 15 July W CyberRays 2, Boston Breakers 0 24 points 2nd place 19 July T CyberRays 1, Atlanta Beat 1 25 points Twelve games into the 21-game 22 July W CyberRays 1, Washington Freedom 0 28 points 25 July L San Diego Spirit 2, CyberRays 0 regular season, the CyberRays 29 July W CyberRays 2, Carolina Courage 1 31 points 1st place had climbed from last place to 2 August W CyberRays 3, Philadelphia Charge 2 34 points third. Five more games and two 5 August W CyberRays 1, New York Power 0 37 points 9 August L Atlanta Beat 4, CyberRays 0 more Beene shutouts put them atop the league. They eliminated WUSA Semifinals New York 3-2 in the playoff 18 Aug. W CyberRays 3, New York Power 2 semifinals and then went to WUSA Championship Foxboro, Mass., to beat Atlanta 25 Aug. W CyberRays 3, Atlanta Beat 3 (CyberRays win 4-2 on penalty kicks) 4-2 on penalty kicks after regulation and two overtimes ended in a 3-3 tie. Final Regular Season Standings W L T Pts x CyberRays 11 6 4 37 “The relative positions to be x Atlanta Beat 10 4 7 37 assumed by man and woman in the x New York Power 9 7 5 32 x Philadelphia Charge 9 8 4 31 working out of our civilization San Diego Spirit 7 7 7 28 were assigned long ago by a higher Boston Breakers 8 10 3 27 Washington Freedom 6 12 3 21 intelligence than ours.” Carolina Courage 6 12 3 21 President Grover Cleveland x – advance to playoffs

______Yet through history, no matter what the equal rights battle has been – in the number of women in medical racial, religious, sexual orientation, schools between the 1972 enactment of country of origin or any other reason Title IX– the federal civil rights law people dreamed up – achieving has never requiring schools to provide equal been as difficult as getting a fair chance. opportunity to girls in all educational For women, winning games has always activities and programs – and the 2001 been easier than just getting on the field. CyberRays’ championship season happened with little controversy and The 600 percent increase of women in almost no notice. law schools and the 500 percent increase – Continued overleaf From one champ to another – Continued from previous But the words “Hi, I’m Dr. Samantha Jones and I’ll be doing your vasectomy” never struck fear in the American sports world the way “Hi, I’m Samantha Jones, and my classmates and I want to play softball” did. Some people never learn to share their toys. Others believe that if Eve, Sarah, Esther and Mary didn’t score goals in the Bible, they shouldn’t score goals today.

Still, most Americans seem to have no problem with women’s sports. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, where women’s soccer was added to the program for the first time, I covered the semifinals and medal games that drew crowds of 64,000 and 76,000 in the University of ’s football stadium. Three years later, when the Women’s World Cup – soccer’s world championship – was played in the for the first time, the games I covered included the USA-Brazil semifinal at Stanford (attendance 73,173) and the USA- championship in the (90,125). Australian Julie Murray nails her – Continued overleaf game-winning penalty kick ...

John Todd photos ... and teammates (L- R) , Gina Oceguera (partly hidden), , Jacqui Little, Carey Dorn, Kelly Lindsey (partly hidden) and Thori Bryan celebrate.

From one champ to another – Continued from previous Starting a professional women’s league, then, seemed to make CyberRays at the celebration sense, even to those who for 30 , hometown Sao Paulo, Brazil (now living in Concord, Calif.), 3-time years continued to try to weaken member of Brazil’s Women’s World Cup team and 2-time member of Brazil’s Olympic Title IX’s rules for school and team, assisted on Tisha Venturini’s goal in the 86th minute that sent the WUSA championship game to . college sports. Midfielder and defender Brandi Chastain, hometown San Jose, 4-time member of Pro sports, though, are all business the U.S. World Cup team (she scored the championship-winning penalty kick against and not covered by Title IX. The China in the Rose Bowl in 1999), 2-time member of the U.S. Olympic team with a gold medal in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and a member of 2 NCAA final four soccer U.S. men’s soccer league at first teams at , scored first CyberRays goal against the Atlanta Beat tried to profit by starting a in the WUSA championship game. women’s league but backed off Defender Thori Bryan, hometown Joppatowne, Md. (now living in Wake Forest, when the top players, including N.C.), member of the bronze medalist U.S. World Cup team in 1995 in , only CyberRays captain Brandi player in the WUSA to play every minute of every game in the 2001 season, played Chastain, refused to play for it. collegiately for North Carolina State. They had investors for a league Defender Lisa Nañez, hometown Los Gatos, Calif., member of the 1999 Mexico of their own. Women’s World Cup team, played collegiately for Santa Clara University.

Nevertheless, the TV rights fees Forward and midfielder Kim Clark, hometown Cupertino, Calif., played collegiately at the University of Southern California, scored a goal and an assist in 2-1 regular for the women’s national team season victory over Carolina that put CyberRays into first place. were owned by and paid to the men’s professional league. The Forward Megan Horvath, hometown Santa Clara, Calif., (now living in San Mateo, Calif.) assisted on game-winning goal over the New York Power in the WUSA men’s pro soccer team in San semifinals, played collegiately at Santa Clara University. Jose blocked the CyberRays’ attempt to play at San Jose State’s Goalkeeper Janine Szpara, hometown San Jose (now living in Portland, Ore.) Spartan Stadium until the mayor played collegiately at Colorado College. coughed up enough money to buy Goalkeeper LaKeysia Beene, hometown Gold River, Calif., (now living in them off. The CyberRays did get to Sacramento) had a league record 6 consecutive shutout games and 624 consecutive keep their hotdog revenue. shutout minutes, former member of U.S. Women’s National Team, played collegiately for Notre Dame.

“[Feminism is] a socialist, anti-family, Defender and forward Gina Oceguera, hometown Santa Clara, member of the 1999 Mexico Women’s World Cup team, played collegiately for Santa Clara University. political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill Midfielder Venus James, hometown Oakland, played collegiately for UCLA. their children, practice witchcraft, Forward and defender Christina Bell, hometown Santa Rosa, Calif., had an assist destroy capitalism and become on Julie Murray’s goal that tied WUSA championship game 2-2 at halftime, played lesbians.” collegiately at Fresno State. TV evangelist Pat Robertson ______The morning after the CyberRays won the owners, John Hendricks, CEO of championship, we boarded an American television’s Discovery Channel, was a Airlines Boeing 767 from Boston to large Democratic Party donor. And Rod California where a huge crowd met the Paige, Bush’s secretary of education, was team at the gate. It was my job to working on a plan many people believed contact the and try to would be another attempt to water down arrange a visit with President George Title IX. Bush. But I was not optimistic about – Continued overleaf securing an invitation. One of our team’s From one champ to another – Continued The White House had no time for the CyberRays despite my letters and phone calls.

But in the next couple of years, Marlene Bjornsrud, our team’s general manager and a former college coach and administrator, went to Washington to testify against attempts to weaken the law.

She had better luck.

Seventeen days after we landed with the trophy, a man with a religiously inspired concept of the status of women wrote in his last will and testament that no woman be allowed to touch his dead body.

Then Mohamed Atta and his four comrades boarded an American Airlines Boeing 767 from Boston to California. After killing the pilots early in the flight, he continued the plane’s westward course until reaching the Hudson River, the visual navigation point for his intended turn south, and aimed the John Todd photo plane at New York’s Captain Brandi Chastain, left, and Tisha Venturini, who sent the World Trade Center. game into overtime by scoring with four minutes left, hoist the ◊ Founder’s Cup trophy. ______

“Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.” Sociologists Cheris Kramarae and Paula Treichler ______Today’s picture pages

So what the heck is a CyberRay? A made-up word and a made-up sea creature honoring the team’s home in Silicon Valley and its proximity to Monterey and San Francisco bays. When the team staff began working on the idea, we wanted to give it a personality and a biography as if it was our 12th player. We named it Shock, because it was an electric ray. “Credited with assists in electrically charging the game-day atmosphere. Graduated from Pacific Marine U. in 2000 with a major in computer science and cardio-pulmonary resuscitation. Likes surfing the internet, swimming, fishing, body-surfing and watching “Shark Week” on the Discovery Channel. Three favorite foods: California rolls, oysters Rockefeller, shrimp cocktail.”

John Todd photo Celebrating the championship.

<<< Signing autographs before the Giants game (L- R): Christina Bell, Gina Oceguera and Thori Bryan.

Venus James, Megan Horvath and Sissi

Brandi Chastain and her son, Jaden, at the autograph table >>>

The good ol’ days of 2001, Brandi Chastain, Katia and Ann Cook take a practice break

Mia Hamm, left, who played for Washington in the WUSA, and CyberRays General Manager Marlene Bjornsrud testify before Congress on Title IX.

Fans welcome CyberRays back to the Bay Area after their championship.

Goodbye from the CyberRays Championship Celebration at AT&T Park, San Francisco